Working Ranch Magazine January/February 2025

looking back

BY BERT ENTWISTLE

Samuel Kohn’s hide and wool store somewhere out West.

Yetta’s Legacy

he Ellis Island Immigration Center in New York Bay opened in 1892 and became famous for processing more than twelve mil lion new arrivals from around the world. The new facility re placed the old Castle Gardens Immigrant Depot after preparing more than eight million new arrivals since opening in 1855. Long before the Depot opened, new immigrants were let off at whatever port the ship’s captain chose. They were often told to get off the ship and away from the docks. No doubt it was a scary, confusing free-for-all. They would have found themselves thrown together with hundreds of people from other countries who couldn’t speak the language, had little money, and had no idea what to do next.

suppliers of hides and furs. Their sons Howard and George were born while living in Denver. Samuel was working selling hides when in May of 1864, Cherry Creek was destroyed by a flood. The family returned to Leavenworth in 1865, where their daughter, Belle, was born. Samuel partnered up with Jacob Weil, selling hides and wool. Not satisfied with their prospects in Leavenworth, they left Kansas again, this time taking their wagon and oxen onto the Santa Fe Trail. Reaching Las Vegas, New Mexico, they opened a store that sold hides and wool, while Yetta worked as a seamstress. Their third son Charles was born there. Samuel had become interested in developing a cattle operation. He started buying what land and cattle he could, and he soon added a ranch to go along with their other businesses. Samuel Kohn died in Las Vegas, on September 29, 1877, leaving Yetta with four children, ages 7, 9, 15, and 17, and she was left to run the family business on her own. After a few years, she sold Continued on page 129

west looking for their future. In 1860, they were living in Leavenworth, in the Kansas Territory. There she met and married a man named Samuel Kohn, another Jewish immigrant, from Pilson, Bohemia, The news of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush was all anyone could talk about at the time, the couple loaded up their wagon, hitched up their oxen, and headed for Colorado. Settling in the Cherry Creek area of Denver, Samuel and Yetta set up shop as grocers, and

In 1853, 10-year-old Yetta Louise Goldsmith, a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, disembarked from a steamer with the unlikely name of the “William Tell,” fresh from Le Harve, France. She and several older fam ily members walked off the ship and straight into this wild mix of human ity that was New York City. The foundation of an incredible family legacy was laid that day when she walked ashore. After a few years in New York, they made their way

130 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.